It has long been known that operating characteristics of an internal combustion engine change in response to changes in parameters. For example, changes in temperature of a fuel over a period of time may affect characteristics of an engine such as power delivered. More specifically, it is known that, as fuel temperature changes, engine power may decrease if the change in fuel temperature is not compensated for.
Attempts have been made to provide compensation for changes in fuel temperature. As an example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,627, Sandborg et al. provides a fuel delivery temperature compensation system and method which calculates a compensated fuel delivery map based on sensed fuel temperature and engine speed.
Although the disclosed invention of Sandborg et al. does much to alleviate the power loss condition associated with changing fuel temperature, the problem of power loss is caused by much more than just the temperature of the fuel. The change in fuel temperature is a combination of the ambient temperature of the fuel and other factors such as heating of the fuel, injectors, rails and other fuel system components during periods of engine use at high speeds and loads.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.